This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Violence in Ontario schools prompts call for more front-line staff

Unions say help in classrooms needed as teachers, education assistants say incidents on the rise.

Erin MacCormack and other Oshawa moms are trying to get the public's attention on school violence, saying their children have been hit, choked and witnessed such violence against other students and teachers. (Salvatore Sacco for the Toronto Star)

Their kids have witnessed “vulgar” verbal attacks, seen teachers chased down the hall, even assaulted, and say too-frequent lockdowns at their elementary school have made students anxious.

A group of Oshawa parents says the situation has grown so out of hand at Beau Valley Public School that their children sometimes don’t want to go to class. And they are calling on the Durham public board and province for changes to help curb such disturbing incidents across all boards — and better support students with special needs who need more support workers with them in class.

“There are many parents that feel the same as I do,” said Erin MacCormack, a mother of two daughters. “I have talked to many parents from different cities, and their stories are all shocking and sad. Kids are struggling in today’s classrooms. They see kids hitting other kids, kids hitting teaching staff, (protective gear) on staff, classrooms destroyed.

“They are fearful when these things are happening.”

It’s an issue the elementary teachers’ union is lobbying the government to address — arguing its members are twice as likely as secondary school teachers to take time off because of workplace violence, noting that rate in general is higher for education workers than for other professions.

Article Continued Below

Some relief is on the way. Education Minister Mitzie Hunter said in an interview the province has added $219 million to a local priorities fund for boards across the province to hire 875 teachers and 1,600 education workers to help address the problem.

In the Durham public board, that means 27 new educational assistants and 13 full-time elementary and five secondary special education teachers, said superintendent John Legere.

He also said the board regularly reviews staffing levels, and “we intend to provide some additional support” to Beau Valley, in terms of special education staff.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is urging the government to fund more staff this fall — from educational assistants to social workers to counsellors to psychologists — as well as implement better training and reporting procedures.

President Sam Hammond acknowledged the government has made “some progress on these issues, (but) there is much more work to be done . . . We’re talking about the need for more services to address children’s mental health, as well as the need to ensure that funding for special needs is also allocated to front-line support services to help ensure the success and well being of every student.”

Hunter said the province is also working with the unions and the Ministry of Labour to ensure health and safety rules are being followed, incidents properly reported and training improved. Enforcement teams will visit every board starting this fall, she added.

“Everyone who is under the roof of a school needs to feel safe and included in their work environment, and students also need to be safe,” Hunter said, adding that changes will be made so that all staff have the information they need about the students in their classroom, which doesn’t happen consistently across the province.

“It’s important if there are certain sensitivities or certain triggers that that information is shared so that our students can be supported.”

Dave Mastin is the president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario Durham Local. He believes the solution to student violence in Durham elementary schools involves increasing education and mental health supports for students.

In Durham Region, local ETFO president David Mastin heard so many concerns that last fall, the union conducted a survey to find out what exactly was going on.

“The worst case this year was a member whose head was smashed against a desk, and she was off for several months,” he said. When she returned to work, it was to the same situation, with no extra help.

The survey of his 2,500 members — of which 791 responded — found that more than three-quarters feel unsafe sometimes or always, and almost one-quarter had filed violent incident claim forms. Some 60 per cent said they were the victims of violence but had not officially reported it.

“It is a major part of this conversation — the education perspective, the teacher perspective. We talked about kids witnessing this day in and day out,” said Mastin. “It’s a gender issue, too — I have significant concerns about students who are going home after witnessing violence against women.”

One special education teacher in the Toronto board said he’s happy with ministry initiatives on youth mental health, but what’s needed is early intervention. Integrating students with behavioural issues into mainstream classes is the goal, he said, but they must be properly supported or their learning, and that of their classmates, suffers.

As it has at Beau Valley, said Oshawa mom Tanya MacLeod, who describes her two daughters as anxious or sometimes fearful to go to school.

“The school is in distress,” she wrote to officials last fall in her unsuccessful pitch for extra staff. “I do feel the teachers are doing all they can but do not have the appropriate support to deal with these situations . . . Also, how can learning exist when children’s routines are constantly disrupted and learning is sidelined?”

Delivered dailyThe Morning Headlines Newsletter

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com